This is a special guest blog written by Paul, a game designer at PlatinumGames for Anarchy Reigns.

How is everyone? I’m Paul, a game designer here at PlatinumGames. Some people call me Paycut Paul. But I keep on keeping on! I’m doing well.

To celebrate Anarchy Reigns being released outside of Japan, I’d like to take a little time to discuss what I was in charge of: the game’s online match types.

In Anarchy Reigns, we didn’t want you to be bored. That’s why we created over 10 match types with significantly different playing styles. First, let’s talk about “Team Battle,” one of the more distinct match types in the game.

Why does Team Battle get set apart? Because it has classes, distributed throughout your team, based on each member’s current match rank. The classes change at fixed intervals and come in three types, each with their own varying abilities. The player on your team currently boasting the highest rank is appointed “Squad Leader.” Team Battle is a competition of which team can get the most Squad Leader kills.

The Squad Leader receives a few bonuses, the most important among these being the ability to put the entire team in Rampage Mode. Once the leader’s gauge is full, select Rampage and the whole team will follow suit. Executing this at the right time will lead your team to victory.

When your whole team is in Rampage Mode, for a short time you’re near-invincible and free to pound the opposing team to your liking. Only, if the opposing team happens to go into Rampage Mode at around the same time, both sides will probably be equally decimated. And if the opposing team is going after you in Rampage Mode, one strategy is to sacrifice other team members to let the Squad Leader escape, limiting overall damage to a minimum. You can also try saving up your Rampage gauge until near the end of the match and tick your opponent off with a comeback victory.

What I think you can see now is, even one element of Team Battle can lead to some complex strategy. I hope you’ll be able to play Anarchy Reigns and discover the thrill of it yourself.

Now, I know the game looks uncouth on the outside, and when you look inside, you see that, well… it’s just as gritty, but not everything in the game is focused on pitting people against each other. There’s some friendly co-op play in there as well.

One example of this is “Survival”, where you’re teamed up with two other players against wave after wave of incoming AI mutants and the like.

What might come as a surprise is that the objective of Survival isn’t to get to the “final” round, but to figure out what brand of teamwork will get you through the most rounds in ten minutes with as much time remaining as possible. The reason we did this is because gameplay in Anarchy Reigns is frantic: it’s not about putting in a lot of time trying to make it to the last stage. And for people who want to play Survival over and over, 10 rounds in 10 minutes let’s you adjust your co-op strategy to see what you can improve each time. Side by side with trusted allies, squared off against a swarm of little villains or a gigantic mutant overlord, Survival is definitely worth the try.

Now to get into one of the stranger match types…. “Deathball.” In Deathball, two teams are placed on opposite sides of a sprawling field, trying to bring the ball to their opponent’s goal. Score the most points in the allotted time, and you win. Think rugby, mixed with a violent slugfest (don’t try this on the real rugby field, kids).

Deathball matches center around scrambling for possession of the ball, so the best fighter isn’t always necessarily the one in the lead. It’s more important to be able to keep the ball out of the opposing team’s reach, or pass the ball around skillfully enough to leave them standing stupid. Quick thinking and quick movement go hand-in-hand with victory here.

Also, if your team keeps the ball long enough, you get the chance for a “killer shot.” These killer shots are, by definition, only able to be blocked by players of the same element (fire/ice/poison/etc), but in reality they’re all so crazy that once they’ve been shot off, there’s pretty much no stopping them. It feels great to be the sender, and not so great to be the receiver. Either way, however, it’s a sight worth seeing.

Well, we were only able to touch on a small fraction of the match types packed into Anarchy Reigns, but I hope you’ve been able to see how deep the strategy can get in every brawl. With its release abroad, Anarchy Reigns gives the gaming world a chance at a completely new genre: multiplayer online melee. To reach a large audience abroad would let us as developers die happy. Try to get your hands on it when it comes out!

Thanks for the info Paul. Everything sounds super cool. This could be the game that gets me to finally shed some of my misgivings about online multiplayer. I’m jazzed to get my hands on my copy next month.
Out of the three PS3 games I have preordered for 2013, two of them are Platinum titles. Can’t get enough of the great work that you guys do!